Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Jar lantern wire handle tutorial

Wow. That title ended up being a mouth full! I've ignored your requests long enough. Well actually I wasn't ignoring you. I have/had good intentions just not enough time. Here is the tutorial for the wire handle on the Jar lanterns we used last year at girls camp. Thanks to Wendy for helping make my movie :)

Here are a few other tips off the top of my head that I think can be helpful...
*If you can buy something at Home Depot vs. the craft store, do it. Your wire may not be as pretty but it will be cheaper.
*The thicker the wire the harder it is to manipulate.
*Make sure when you do the first step of wrapping the wire around the jar you leave enough slack so when you come back around you will be able to get your wire under it again. Needle nose pliers are really helpful. On the other side you can't have it too loose or your handle will fall off your jar. I know...you just can't win. Seriously...It's easy once you get the hang of it :)
*When I did these for camp I sprayed them first and then put the wire on. I noticed right away that when sliding the wire under to attach the handle it would scratch off the paint. I ended up sliding a small piece of cardstock under where the wire would scratch. After you slide the wire through you can take the piece of paper out. It might even slide out as you pull the wire through.

7 comments:

I made these for a handout and I put the wire on first and then sprayed it. Worked and it didn't really do anything to the wire. I used fun shaped jars that I had saved from jams and sauces. Thanks for sharing.

Just a random thought on these, I found a blog a little while ago and the woman used outdoor mod pogde and food coloring and painted the outside of the jar to hang in her garden. Here is the link if anyone is interested :http://gingerbreadsnowflakes.com/node/169

I've been searching and searching how to make wire handles for all these bottles and jars I have. Thank you!! I wanted to make hanging glass jar or bottle valances. My first valance project had jars that had handles already. The whole Idea is that when you put them up at the window, light shines through. To clean, all you have to do is put the jars in the dishwasher.